Archive for the 'games' Category
There are worse things to do on a day off than play Nintendogs while listening to Leon Kirchner. (Would this behavior have been considered rebellious in some particular time period? Kirchner’s music sounds like it could probably have been the Classical equivalent of the Sex Pistols at some point in terms of cultural reception.)
I somehow stayed on a Yo-Yo Ma and David Zinman kick, listening through the 1996 album of cello and orchestra works by Richard Danielpour, Leon Kirchner, and Christopher Rouse. The last movement of the Danielpour has a motif that mirrors Hitoshi Sakimoto’s main theme from RomeoxJuliet, which was first aired in 2007. I wonder if Sakimoto had heard this concerto before writing the score. It certainly fits both pieces. The Kirchner is quite pretty and expressive, and Zinman has such a respectfully affectionate portrayal of him in the liner notes.
What has become surprising to me, personally, is how much more attuned my ear has become to listening to these compositions. I remember feeling confused by these three concertos upon first listening. But they make sense now and I can hear actual structure and ideas. It probably started with either the Barber Violin Concerto of the Corigliano Violin Sonata: pieces that I could somehow make sense of despite their dissonances and unexpectedly musical harmonies. Now, after performing not a few works abiding by these same principles, this way of listening has improved? I suppose I can’t complain about it.
When I took off my headphones, Dvorak’s Violin Sonatina Op. 100 (Itzhak Perlman) was streaming through my dad’s computer in the adjacent room. It’s still such a cute piece after all these years. I should get around to learning it properly sometime.
June 01 2010 | games and music and musings | No Comments »
FreeCell is for listening to new music. It’s just barely stimulating enough.
One major benefit of being back at my parents’ house is being able to riffle through all the albums my dad owns but I never paid enough attention to when I was younger (He owns 14 copies of the Dvorak Cello Concerto…)
Tonight is the Barber Cello Concerto and Britten Symphony for Cello and Orchestra (Yo-Yo Ma, David Zinman, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. ) – both of which I’ve never heard before (though Barber’s Violin Concerto is hands down my favourite violin concerto.)
Barber could definitely have made this concerto more “modern.” I’m glad he didn’t; My dad probably wouldn’t have bought it if it was. What an amazing recording.
May 31 2010 | games and music and musings | No Comments »
There is no more special or powerful being anywhere than a real mother. It probably takes more skill to be a mother than run a country. For starters, it’s not really an office you can leave once you’ve stepped inside. For afterstarters, they’re so very very scary when they are angry.
But some of us get lucky too. I will never forget my mother teaching me to read and do math. Or the fact that her best dishes are impossible to replicate perfectly and I miss them terribly sometimes. Or the time she explained to me how babies are made, but only on a cellular level (When I asked how the cells meet, she gave me a medical textbook and a smile.)
Or stealing back the N64 from my apartment because she was in MarioKart64 withdrawl.
Besides, who else could say those magic words as truly as a mother? (“You need a bra”)
Happy Mother’s Day, Mum.
May 09 2010 | food and games and musings and semi-facts | No Comments »
Upcoming performance:
January 1-4, 2010.
Hilton Marks Center
Alexandria, VA
[Select Start] is returning to [MAGFest]!! I’ll also be sitting in a few songs with [The Oneups.] Look at the guest list ([Sid Meier] anyone?) and the band list ([Armcannon]! [The Megas]!)! Everyone should go!
More information to come soon. I’m very very excited.
November 21 2009 | games and music and performances and travels | No Comments »
“It is all a long way from the beeps and bloops of the first video games.”
I’m surprised it took, of all publications, the [New York Times] this long to write some variation of this sentence – namely using “long way” in combination with “bleeps and bloops.” Fairly nice article otherwise, though.
In other news, it’s time to find a new sentence, or just onomatopoeic sounds, to describe how evolved video game music and the culture such around has become, methinks.
October 28 2009 | games and music and musings | 1 Comment »
Upcoming performance:
Friday, July 31, 2009 – 10pm
Smoke and Barrel Tavern
Fayetteville, AR
performing with The Oneups.
more information [here]
Back to practice…
July 28 2009 | games and music and performances and travels | No Comments »
The gmail music player produces better music file sound than my winamp.
Today, here is the music of a quintet from [Eminence Symphony Orchestra] (previously mentioned [here]) and Final Fantasy miscellany. Still thinking of finding the direct path to joining them. Still thinking of how I can turn into [Hiroaki Yura].
If you weren’t aware that these melodies were from video games, an anime, and a soundtrack to a novel, would you have thought that they were composed for such? Be honest…
Tracks: (all files uploaded onto zshare.net. Music is rightful property of the artists. I don’t own any of these…Please buy their music and support them.)
+ [Dash] (Romeo x Juliet) – Hitoshi Sakimoto
- performed by members of the Eminence Symphony Orchestra
- Short, but very fun to play. I don’t remember it from the series at all, but this version is charming and has an odd ending.
+ [The Fall of Darkness] (Kirite) – Yasunori Mitsuda
- performed by members of the Eminence Symphony Orchestra
- Kirite is an irresistible album. I recently arranged this piece for Select Start and was sincerely afraid that we would read through it once and then forget about it. After all, from a market standpoint, the piece is risky, being from an unfamiliar not-video game. However, the opposite happened and after two readings, they actually really wanted to put some solid work into it. So we’ll see how far this goes!
+ [Estrelas] – Nobuo Uematsu featuring Risa Ohki
- from the Final Fantasy: Love Will Grow vocal album, sung to the melody of “Gilbert’s Harp” from Final Fantasy IV
+ [Cosmos] (Dissidia : Final Fantasy) – Your Favorite Enemies
- Yet another strangely resolved piece. Interesting lyrics.
June 05 2009 | Uncategorized and games and music | No Comments »
While going over past posts in order to organize the [new page], the fact came to my attention that as much as I write about music and performances on this site.blog.webspace, I’ve never actually posted up any recordings involving myself.
Don’t get used to it. There are more through [myspace] anyway.
Here are some personal tracks, edited a little by yours truly, unless otherwise noted:
+ [Title] – from Megaman III
- A large majority of my recorded sound is through [that band] I play with. I really like this recording, arranged by David Yasensky, guitar.
+ [Green Hill Zone. Marble Zone] – from Sonic the Hedgehog
- Because that first one is a bit short. Also arranged by David and featuring solo work by Kanako “Kiki” Sueyoshi, violin, on the second melody. You can get our CD for free on our [website].
+ [Boy Aims for Wild Fields] – from Secret of Mana
- I talk a lot about [The OneUps] here and should write a post of their music someday soon. But for now, this is a collaboration from a [MAGfest VI] rehearsal back in 2008, featuring OneUps bassist/keyboardist/producer/monkey trainer [Mustin] on bass and musician extraordinaire [Kunal Majmudar] on drums. The beginning is a little shaky as we try to find a decent tread.
+ [The Vagabond] – composed by Tyzen Hsiao; rearranged by Maho Azuma and me; performed by Maho Azuma (flute), Christine Lee (piano), and me (violin)
- Back a summer or two ago, Select Start was asked to perform in one of the university cultural assemblies. Sadly, the majority of the members were out of town so we re-arranged this tune for anyone still in town. Tyzen Hsiao is one of the more prolific Taiwanese composers, and the piece just worked out nicely overall. This was recorded during a later Select Start rehearsal, which accounts for the background noise that I apologize profusely for… The three of us are looking for another opportunity to re-record it in a silent setting.
+ [Eternal Harvest] (from Final Fantasy IX) – Christine Lee, piano
- So this one isn’t me at all but I have to pass on this recording whenever I have an excuse to because it’s so pretty. Christine is a rather significant inspiration in my life. For starters, she played my junior recital better than I did and then decided to go and be a doctor after all. This is from the very first Select Start CD ever.
May 31 2009 | games and music | No Comments »
I’ve kind of been hiding this, but it seems to be getting around the Internets lately anyway so what’s the harm.
Here it is – the [Womengamers.com] interview (on behalf of [OCRemix]) in all it’s glory. Though I’m not particularly a fan of my own answers (I didn’t think he was going to publish it verbatim…), I’m very quite honored to be on it with such accomplished ladies as [Jill] and [Nicole]. Many big thanks go out to [Larry Oji], M. Brandon Robbins, and [Jeriaska]…
[click here for the article]
February 26 2009 | games and music | 2 Comments »
In the world of revolutions, an individual is probably never quite sure when they are involved in one until it ends. In the ever-growing, ever-changing world of video game entertainment media, just about every step is deemed “revolutionary.”
The label is almost always debatable.
But hardly anyone can disagree that the [Child's Play Charity], run by super-popular webcomic (and something of a webcommunity) [Penny Arcade], is a major step in polishing away some of the spit, flack, and rancor that video games receive from narrow-minded politicians, analysts, psychologists, or other such figures of so-called authority. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Child’s Play, the Seattle-based charity uses the money from donations and merchandising to buy games, books, and toys, and money for sick children in around 60 hospitals primarily in North America, though recently they have begun global expansion to around eleven hospitals. Over 3.5 million dollars have been donated towards these hospitals since 2003, with over one million of those dollars donated in 2008 alone.
Child’s Play dares you to say that gamers don’t give back. The charity is growing in name, recognition, efforts, and more and more hospitals are partnering each year. This year’s annual auction dinner, which took place just earlier this month, boasted over 400 attendants, collected $200,000, and also saw the release of the very first Child’s Play Charity CD – with all proceeds going to the charity, of course.
The CD is by far one of the cheapest pieces of merchandise out there when you weigh price against content. Most of the tracks were exclusively written and/or recorded just for this CD by some of the biggest names in video game music such as [Jake 'virt' Kaufman] – composer of the Contra 4 soundtrack, [MC Frontalot], [Freezepop], [Jonathan Coulton], and [some][dear][friends]. Oh, and my band tossed in a track too. We couldn’t think of a better way to help promote such a fantastic cause than through the one thing we love doing best.
But none of this would have been possible without the hard work of my good friend [Mustin], who engineered and produced this project with some tremendous skill. I certainly think that given the quality and caliber of these recordings, his efforts and dedication certainly paid off. However, I am also severely biased so [here] are some samples for you to decide for yourself. And then maybe buy one for yourself and everyone you know.
Bring on the revolution.
The Child’s Play Charity CD can be purchased [here]. For more information on Child’s Play and participating or fundraising, check out their website at [http://www.childsplaycharity.org] or [this] cute little information page.
December 26 2008 | games and music | No Comments »
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